When qualifying an incident as a computer crime, which description is not considered valid?

In the context of defining a computer crime, the description that the computer is one of the objects stolen during a burglary is not considered valid because it does not involve the computer being used in a crime that specifically targets information technology systems or data. Instead, this scenario describes a traditional theft, where the crime is focused on the physical hardware rather than on illegal activities that exploit the computer itself or its data.

Valid descriptions of computer crime typically involve scenarios where the computer or its data is either the target of an act or utilized as a means to perpetrate the crime. When the computer functions as the object of the act, the means of committing the crime, or the target itself, it highlights its role in incidents such as hacking, data breaches, or phishing, which directly relate to the misuse of technology. In contrast, describing the computer merely as an object stolen does not encapsulate the essence of computer crime as it steers towards property crime rather than addressing the criminal exploitation of computers or digital data.